Greater New Orleans

1990: St. Tammany population explodes

Mandeville exploded as ground zero for a feverish population boom in the late 20th century. In the 1800s, the north shore became a healthy hideaway for New Orleanians fleeing epidemics of yellow fever. By the 1990s, St. Tammany Parish was the metro area’s final frontier of suburban growth, and as new subdivisions went up at breakneck speed, local governments struggled to keep up with increased demands for public services.

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A compliant parish government at one time approved most plans for new subdivisions and shopping centers, welcoming the permit fees and tax revenues they represented. After Louis Prima’s Pretty Acres golf course was sold in 1994 and paved over for big-box stores, calls for stricter growth controls increased. A new, streamlined form of government was approved by voters in 1998, coinciding with the start of New Directions 2025, a five-year, citizen-led effort to map future development in St. Tammany Parish.

An influx of residents in the 1990s overwhelmed highways and local streets, and it was well into the next decade before road improvements managed to ease the gridlock around Covington, Mandeville and Slidell. The 1990 census showed the population of St. Tammany Parish had increased 30 percent compared with 1980. Orleans and Jefferson parishes showed population declines.

One of St. Tammany’s most popular exports, Abita Beer has been brewed since 1986 with the pure water that made its
namesake hometown famous.

Pelican Park near Mandeville opened in 1990 with a fledgling recreation program for local youths. Today, it attracts more than 1 million visitors a year to 32 ball fields, two gyms, a walking trail, the multipurpose Castine Center and the parish's first dog park.

St. Tammany’s highly rated public school system was a lure for thousands of newcomers, but it took years for the supply of classrooms to catch up with the demand. Between 1990 and 2011, the School Board spent more than $426 million to build 18 schools and expanded dozens of others as enrollment increased by more than 50 percent.

An abandoned railroad line converted into a 28-mile path through the piney woods, the scenic Tammany Trace has been popular with walkers, joggers and bicyclists throughout the region since opening in 1993. Its trailheads at Mandeville and Covington have become focal points of those communities.